Full Time Friend
by Last of the Lilac Wine
Summary: In the end Julia Pierce and Harry Potter fell madly in love, got married and had children; but before all that they were best friends.
1. Coffee

**A/N **I took this story down from this site a little over a year ago because I had decided to discontinue it. However, upon re-reading _Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix_, I forgot how much I loved the universe and characters in Harry Potter, and decided to re-write and re-post this fic!

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**Chapter 1: Coffee**

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The smell of freshly brewed coffee drew Amelia into the kitchen that morning as she ran down the stairs, twisting her thick copper hair into a knot at the back of her head and anchoring it with bobby pins.

Her niece was hunched over a steaming mug at the kitchen table, poring over a large copy of _A Beginners Guide to Transfiguration _that Amelia had bought her only a week ago. Julia looked exhausted – her grey eyes were bloodshot; her chestnut hair pulled back in a knotty ponytail.

"Tell me you haven't been up all night," Amelia asked, shocked. Her niece, whilst over-eager, wasn't exactly the studious type.

Julia didn't even glance up. "I haven't been up all night" she parroted.

Amelia sighed, pouring herself a cup of coffee and slid into a chair across from her. "Honestly?"

"I've been up since two. I couldn't sleep," Julia amended, pulling a face.

Amelia frowned, taking in the young girl's messy hair and tired appearance. Was this the kind of thing, as designated care-giver and responsible adult that you were supposed to yell at? Put your foot down on? The idea of attempting to be her strict no-nonsense mother made her want to staple something to her head. Amelia settled for: "You shouldn't be drinking coffee at your age."

"What parenting book did you read that in?"

Amelia rolled her eyes. She hadn't heard that one before. "It's your first day of school."

Julia couldn't argue with that, so she turned back to reading her book. "What are you learning about?" Amelia asked, after taking another sip of coffee. She felt the much-need caffeine begin to take effect; the sugar singing in her bloodstream.

"The background concept of all basic transfigurations."

"And do you understand it?"

Julia's expression turned vaguely hysterical. "No…what's the matter?"

"Just having a flashback to why I had to re-take OWL Transfiguration."

"Oh God I'm going to be the dumbest in my class!" Julia cried, slamming her head into her crossed arms that rested on the table.

"You're going to do _fine_. The reason you go to school is to learn all that stuff. Now, what have you had for breakfast?"

"Coffee," came Julia's slightly muffled, slightly tearful reply as she spoke into her elbow. "I don't even _like _coffee."

"What about bacon and eggs? You need your protein."

Julia lifted her head to eye Amelia suspiciously as she magicked two eggs to crack themselves into a frying pan with a wave of her wand and set two strips of bacon by them. Julia had good reason to be suspicious – Amelia didn't cook often, and when she did, it was rarely edible. Domesticity had never been her strong point.

"Have you made sure everything's in your trunk?"

"Yes."

"And you've packed your robes?"

"_Yes_."

"Your new books?"

"Yes."

"Pudge's food?"

"Yeah-no!" Julia sped out of the room and then Amelia heard her thundering up the stairs. "I CAN'T FIND IT!" she yelled, a few seconds later.

For the life of her, Amelia would never understand why Julia had insisted on calling her new owl _Pudge_, she was sure the girl would regret it in a few years time, but for now it was something to quietly snicker over when her niece was out of the room.

"Check on your shelf, it's in a brown paper bag!"

"I STILL CAN'T SEE IT!" Julia yelled.

Amelia rolled her eyes. "It's next to that photo of you and I in France!"

"WHERE?"

"Oh for God's sake…" Amelia muttered to herself. "I _SAID _IT'S NEXT TO THAT PHOTO OF-"

"I FOUND IT!"

Amelia sighed, slipping the cooked pieces of bacon onto a plate for Julia and started scrambling the eggs. Julia appeared a few minutes later looking slightly breathless. "Smell's good" she said, appreciatively.

"It's about done, here."

Amelia fixed her niece with an unwavering stare until she had finished the whole plate. When she finished eating Amelia magicked it clean (she would never understand how Muggle's had the patience to wash each plate individually) and checked her watch.

"I've got to be at the office for ten to eleven – is it okay if I drop you off at King's Cross now?"

Julia's face turned slightly green. "Erm…sure."

"It's okay if you want me to stay with you, I can owl them and say I'll be late –"

"No, no it's fine – really."

"Julia."

"Amelia…"

Amelia chewed on her lower lip for a second, a guilty feeling lodging soundly in the pit of her stomach. She was trying to work her way up the ranks of the Department of Security - at the moment she was purely a researcher – but she hated it when that ambition sometimes placed her job before Julia. "Okay fine," she said, still feeling absolutely awful. "Let's go get your trunk and…Pudge."

"Right."

"And don't forget to brush your teeth!"

"I know."

Five minutes later Julia and Amelia were standing outside their little house on the outskirts of London hand in hand, Julia towing a magically enlightened trunk and Pudge's cage.

Amelia stole one last glance at her niece – the bitten half-moon fingernails, the freckle behind the ear, the zigzag in her hair – and saw instead the toddler who'd wait at the babysitter's window at sundown, because she knew that was when her Aunt came to get her.

Amelia felt a lump fill her throat as she realized how lonely she would be with out Julia in the house to keep her company.

"Ready Jules?"

Julia squeezed her hand slightly. "Ready."

Amelia took a deep breath and spun on her heel and the world went black.

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**A/N **I'm not entirely sure how many people still read new fics on this site seeing as the last Harry Potter film came out almost _three years ago_, so if you are interested in this, please **review **so I know to continue it!

_Last Of The Lilac Wine_


	2. One Small Step

**Chapter 2: One Small Step**

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Julia opened the door to the last compartment on the train and came face to face with Harry Potter. Well, actually, he was sitting perhaps a meter away from her, but when something like this happens to you, distinctions hardly matter.

Julia stared. He had messy black hair and glasses and hadn't seemed to notice she had entered the compartment yet. He was deep in conversation with another boy who had ginger hair and seemed to be physically incapable of tucking his shirt in.

"God I hope no one else comes in – how cool would it be to have a compartment all to ourselves?" the ginger boy was saying, eagerly.

Julia flushed crimson and was about to turn around and leave when the two boys finally noticed her, taking in the messy chestnut hair pulled back into an even messier bun, and anxious, grey eyes.

Realizing she was caught, Julia cleared her throat. "Er…could I sit here?"

The ginger boy flushed a peculiar shade of red that clashed horribly with his hair. Clearly, he'd realized Julia had heard the latter stages of his conversation. "I'm Julia, Julia Pearce," she added hurriedly.

Harry Potter spoke. Julia's anxious gaze swung from his friend back to him. "I'm Harry, and this is Ron."

Julia nodded, awkwardly tucking a piece of hair that had already fallen out of her bun behind her left ear. "Well..um..I'll just sit down."

Amelia had helped her stow her trunk away at the end of the carriage before leaving, but Julia still managed to possess an impressive itinerary of carry-on luggage. Too short to reach the baggage rack above their heads, she settled herself down next to the boy called Ron; a mountain balanced upon her knee made up of her rucksack, scarf, coat, and Pudge's case precariously topping the haphazard pile.

After an increasingly awkward silence, Harry decided to speak again. "Is that your owl?"

"Yeah" Julia said fondly, looking at Pudge who was sleeping peacefully in his cage.

"I have an owl too – I called her Hedwig."

_What an odd name for an owl_ Julia thought. Hedwig.

Deciding that she better include the other boy in their conversation Julia turned. "Do you have an owl Rupert?"

"It's Ron."

Julia's cheeks burned bright red once again. "Oh…sorry…so.._do _you have an owl, Ron?" She saw Harry wince out of the corner of her eye.

"No."

Another awkward silence. Despite meeting Harry Potter, Julia was beginning to regret entering his compartment.

She fiddled with the bottom of her pink sweater nervously, feeling Ron glare daggers at her. She wondered how she'd so badly offended him.

"Erm –" she cast around wildly; she couldn't handle awkward silences, instead plowing forwards with more questioning despite the obvious train wreck that was occurring. "- What's your family like, Ron?"

"Large."

"That's nice. I'd love to have brothers and sisters; I'm an only child. It would be great to have brothers – but I wouldn't want to be the youngest –" _shut up_! She scolded herself mentally, as she heard the incoherent babble she was nervously spewing out. "- I reckon being the youngest – well, everyone would have done everything before you and after a while nothing you did would really look impressive anymore, would it?" She stopped talking abruptly, ending with a question that possessed an air of hopeless desperation. "I mean, because your siblings would have done stuff before you."

"I'm the second youngest -" Ron muttered, somewhat grumpily.

Julia, taking him to be agreeing with her, stopped fidgeting with her sweater and grinned. "So you don't have it too bad, then," she said, brightly.

"- out of seven."

Julia resisted the urge to dig herself a hole in the ground and disappear into it, and instead resolved to sit in silence for the rest of the journey, miserable.

Harry proved himself to be completely useless at breaking the tension between Julia and Ron. In fact, everything about Harry Potter was surprising Julia: he wasn't at all what she expected.

He looked…overwhelmingly and surprisingly…_normal_.

"What?"

Julia moved her eyes from the window to look at Harry, surprised that her self-imposed silence had been broken so quickly. "_What_, what?" she asked, confused.

Harry Potter's green eyes flickered with hurt and irritation. "You just said that I wasn't what you expected."

Julia's eyes widened. "I said that _out loud_?"

"Listen" Ron butted in irritably. "No offense or anything, but wouldn't you rather hang out with some of the first year girls?"

"But I…didn't mean that you're not what I expected in a _bad _way -" but Harry didn't look convinced. In fact, he looked quite put out. Probably, he'd been hoping that nobody had been expecting _anything_ about him – which was just silly, Julia reflected, because he _was _Harry Potter, and he _had _saved the entire wizarding world from You-Know-Who, and – Julia sighed mentally as she took in the less-than-welcoming expressions on Harry and Ron's faces. It probably wouldbe for the best if she just left.

She grabbed Pudge's cage - Pudge letting out an indignant hoot at being woken up in such a manner – and made her way out of the compartment.

That was a complete disaster.

Julia frowned. Amelia _had _said making new friends would be hard, and she had been right. Amelia was usually right. It was just that, after her small collision with two of her first year peers, it suddenly hit her how hard it would be.

Or maybe she was just completely socially awkward.

But how was Julia to know that Ron was touchy about family, and not having an owl? And she couldn't control what she _accidentally _said out-loud…

To Julia, everything seemed very unfair right about now.

She ambled up and down the hallway slowly for a while, looking for another compartment that was not full of scary seventh years until she presently heard a loud angry voice.

Julia turned round and came face to face with a girl with bushy brown hair and pretty eyes. "Harry Potter and Ronald Weasley" the girl stormed, barely even noticing to whom she was ranting, "are the biggest idiots I have _ever _met! I mean they got into a fight before we even got into _school_, and Ron ate a sweet _he dropped on the floor_! Can you believe it?"

"Actually…I can."

"I swear they're both mentally challenged!"

"Harry Potter's mentally challenged?"

"Probably not," the girl admitted. "But Ronald Weasley definitely could be. He tried to turn his rat _yellow. _We don't learn that kind of magic until fourth year _and _he was doing the wand movements _all wrong_."

She stopped and looked at Julia, as if to measure whether she'd understood the severity of the ridiculousness that was Ron Weasley and Harry Potter. A slow smile had already spread across Julia's anxious face.

"_What_?" The girl asked - the tips of her ears going slightly pink - she abruptly looked self-conscious about her out-burst.

"Nothing…I'm Julia Pearce," said Julia, juggling Pudge's cage underneath her left arm and sticking her right hand out. The girl, after a brief hesitation, took it quickly. "Hermione Granger" she said in a business-like tone that couldn't conceal a tinge of excitement. "It's very nice to meet you Julia."

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**A/N **I hope I captured Harry, Ron and Hermione's voices okay in this chapter – I'm really going to work on getting the characterization right in this fic, so please let me know what you think so far.

Thank you, **Tangolikeoak**, for your review – it's nice to see that people are reading and enjoying this story!

_Last Of The Lilac Wine_


	3. The Ghost

**Chapter 3: The Ghost **

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The train finally slowed and came to a stop and a disembodied voice announced for students to leave their luggage on the train. Julia bade Pudge a hurried, nervous goodbye before she and her new friend, Hermione, were swept off of the train with a sea of other students out into the dark onto a long, narrow platform.

"Where do you s'pose we go now?" Julia asked Hermione, shivering; their new robes did little to keep out the frigid night air.

"Well…I expect if we just follow the crowd…" Hermione bit her lip, nervously attempting to sound practical. The two girls were too small to see where the crowd of students was taking them. Hermione was sticking as close to Julia as she could, short of grabbing the other girl's hand; obviously anxious they would be split up in the jostling crowd. The older students surrounding them were oblivious to the first years' low-level terror and raucous laughs and shouts filled the air.

"Firs'-years! Firs'-years over here!"

The gruff yell was coming from behind them, at the opposite end of the platform. Julia stopped abruptly, turning and craning her neck in a futile attempt to see from whom the call was emitting.

"Oi!" snapped a burly looking youth almost triple Julia's height as he almost stepped on her. "You can't just _stop _–"

"Sorry!" Hermione said hurriedly for her when all Julia could do was let out a strangled kind of squeak. She blindly grabbed her hand, dragging her back through the crowd of students towards the bellowing voice still calling "_Firs' years_!"

Both girls were shocked to find that their rallying call was coming from someone they could only describe as a giant. The man had a big, hairy face and huge shoulders –.but there was a kindly twinkle in his eyes as he said gruffly: "we all here then? Follow me. Mind yer step."

Slipping and sliding, they followed him down the rest of the platform and down a path through some trees. Nobody, spoke. Every now and then Julia caught sight of Ron Weasley's red hair a little ahead of them.

It had started to drizzle mildly by the time they reached a fleet of boats. Hermione had wrapped her scarf round her head in a kind of balaclava in an effort to stay warm.

They were one of the last ones to the lake-side and the boats seemingly had a four-person quota that needed to be filled before they floated off; meaning that Hermione and Julia were unwillingly separated. Hermione clambered into a boat with Harry, Ron and a plump, nervous looking boy and almost instantly the boat drifted off.

Julia, her long cloak dragging over wet pebble-stones, finally managed to find a free boat. She jumped in – her hands were shaking slightly from either nerves or cold, she couldn't tell which – and they set off.

Her traveling companions did not greet her, though the white-blonde haired, smug little schmuck did inform her gleefully when she dipped her fingers experimentally into the freezing cold water that a Giant Squid lived below its surface that ate anyone that fell in. His two, thick-set cronies laughed snidely at the comment in a way that made Julia think they would push her in just to find out.

She clung to the lantern-carrying pole at the front of the boat tightly just in case and looked mournfully at Hermione's bushy silhouette a little ahead of them.

All thoughts of death-by-squid were erased, however, as the boat passed the cliff face and suddenly a vast castle appeared in front of them – window's burning like fire, vast lawns sloping down from its base towards the lake.

Julia experienced what countless other Hogwarts students experienced in this moment. A sense of awe, excitement and – inexplicably – a sense of _home_.

The small fleet of boats entered a kind of underground harbor and Julia scrambled out of her vessel almost before it was stationary; shooting a dirty look at the three Slytherins (of that outcome, she had little doubt) she'd been forced to share with.

Hermione was located with minimal problem and Julia immediately launched into recounting to her her imaginative, strident revenge-theory in which the three Slytherin boys were humiliatingly sorted into _Huffelpuff._

By the time Julia was finished, Hermione was going 'shhh, shhh' out of the corner of her mouth, her head valiantly attempting to sink into her shoulders. There was, after all, she pointed out, a likelihood of a quarter of the people they were standing with being sorted into Huffelpuff; and, Hermione continued rationally, a chance of Julia herself being sorted into Huffelpuff. ('Me?! _Huffelpuff?_' Julia said, bewildered. 'What are you _talking _about?') She had her heart set on Gryffindor.

Thinking moonily of being round similarly intellectually-minded children, most likely, Hermione ventured that Ravenclaw might be a nice house to be sorted into. Julia realized with some panic that the chances of her and Hermione being sorted into the same house were incredibly slim.

Hagrid left them to be replaced by a stern-looking, tall, black-haired witch in emerald green robes and spectacles. She led them up some stairs to a small, empty chamber off of the side of the Great Hall and addressed them with a firm, 'no-nonsense' kind of voice.

"Welcome to Hogwarts," she started. "My name is Professor McGonagall. The start-of-term banquet will begin shortly, but before you take your seats in the Great Hall, you will be sorted into your houses. The Sorting is a very important ceremony because, while you are here, your house will be something like your family within Hogwarts. You will have classes with the rest of your house, sleep in your house dormitory and spend free time in your house common room. The four houses are called Gryffindor, Huffelpuff, Ravenclaw and Slytherin. Each house has its own noble history and each has produced outstanding witches and wizards…"

Though Hermione was gazing up at Professor McGonagall like she could be God, Julia felt her concentration begin to slip away. She could smell the food wafting from the Great Hall, hear the low buzz of hundreds of conversations, _feel _the warmth that would chill her frozen skin and thought longingly of all these things, trying to –

the next thing she knew she felt a very unpleasant sensation of being doused with a bucket of ice water and there was a ghost protruding from her stomach.

Julia screamed, quite effectively ending Professor McGonagall's speech and watched in silent horror as the ghost floated through her and towards the great wooden doors directly in front of the group with out a backward glance.

Julia turned to Hermione, whose eyes were wide with shock.

"Did you just see that too?" Julia whispered hoarsely.

Hermione nodded her head slowly, looking completely traumatized.

"_Thank you_," snapped Professor McGonagall, fixing Julia with a steely gaze. Julia gulped. "Now - as I was saying - I hope each of you will become a credit to whichever house becomes yours. The Sorting Ceremony will take place in a few minutes in front of the rest of the school. I suggest you smarten yourselves up and try to prevent any more hysterical outbursts."

Professor McGonagall glared at Julia pointedly, who Hermione quickly shuffled away from, and Julia glared at Hermione, for being a traitorous authoritarian bitch.

McGonagall disappeared for a few minutes - in which the first years nervously tried to make themselves look presentable and not throw up - and then, she returned. "Please form a line, and follow me."

"I can't _believe _you've already gotten on the bad-side of a _teacher_!" Hermione whispered to Julia out of the corner of her mouth as she stepped into the line in front of her.

"You would have screamed too if there was a _ghost _coming out of your stomach!"

Ron Weasley snorted from somewhere in front of Julia, and Hermione turned quickly to snap at him but the pair of double doors leading to the Great Hall opened and she quickly shut her mouth.

Julia was confronted by a large hall lit with thousands and thousands of candles floating in mid-air over four long tables, where the rest of the students were sitting. At the top of the Hall was another long table at which the teachers sat.

Hermione nudged Julia and nodded towards the ceiling, which was dotted with stars.

"It's bewitched to look like the sky outside, I read it in _Hogwarts: A History_" she whispered, knowledgably.

Julia only nodded vaguely in response, trying to ignore the hundreds of pairs of eyes that had suddenly turned on them and how her legs felt like jelly.

"When I call your name, you will sit on the stool and put the hat on to be sorted" said McGonagall, her voice ringing impressively through out the hall. "Abbot, Hannah."

A pink faced girl with blond pigtails stumbled out of line, put on the hat, which fell right down over her eyes, and sat down. There was only a moment's pause when, –

"HUFFELPUFF!"

Julia suddenly became very conscious that her hair was incredibly messy in its bun, that she was a good two inches shorter than the second smallest person in the crowd, and that she was very likely going to throw-up before it was even her turn to put on the stupid hat.

A few students later and Professor McGonagall suddenly called out "Granger, Hermione!"

Hermione almost fell over as she ran out of the group and jammed the hat eagerly onto her head, and Julia blushed red at how unbelievably…_Hermione_ her new friend was.

"GRYFFINDOR!"

Julia blinked – surprised – and then grinned. Maybe there was a chance she'd be in the same house as Hermione after all!

Ron groaned from beside her, which struck Julia as a very nasty thing to do, and she turned to glare at him. He pointedly ignored her, pretending to itch the side of his nose. Harry Potter looked very pale as he stood nervously on Ron's left, not taking his eyes off of the Sorting Hat.

Then there was "Perks, Sally-Anne, and then…

"Pearce, Julia!"

Julia gathered her courage and marched determinedly up to the hat, shoving all nerves to the back of her mind.

_You're putting me in Gryffindor_, she instructed it, severely, the moment she'd rammed the hat onto her head.

_You know, I don't really think that's for you to decide, _the hat told her dryly. _Let me see…my, my __**definitely **__more brawn then brains, here_… _And a good deal of emphasis placed on family and friends, it would seem. You know, Huffelpuff would suit you very well, my dear. _

Julia felt her eyes narrow. _Don't even. _

The hat sounded _amused_. Amused! _Is that a threat? _It asked.

_I'll feed you to the Giant Squid if you do._

_Dear me, maybe I was wrong. Maybe I ought to put you in Slytherin…_

_You think I'm joking._

…_Definitely not Ravenclaw…_

_GRYFFINDOR! Put me in Gryffindor you stupid hat! _

_Better be –_

_Please! I'm begging you – I'll do anything – I didn't mean the threat about the Giant Squid – I would never do that – Just don't put me in Slytherin – or Huffelpuff – definitely not Slytherin – just _

"GRYFFINDOR!" the hat suddenly yelled out, cutting her off. The table to Julia's left exploded into applause and a few cheers.

Julia realized how fast her heart was beating and blew out the breath she hadn't realized she was holding.

_Maybe I won't feed you to the Giant Squid after all, _she told the hat, before taking it off her head.

She could have sworn she heard it chuckle.

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**A/N **Thank you to **Guest 2.0 **and **musicluver246 **for reviewing last chapter. To Guest 2.0, one of the things I most look forward to about writing this fic is going a bit more in depth into the first year at Hogwarts and what life in Hogwarts would actually be like, so thank you!

Julia should have more interaction with Harry and Ron next chapter, but I should warn you that she won't become friends with them straight away.

And no offense was intended to any Slytherins or Huffelpuff's in this chapter – I'm actually a Slytherin myself on Pottermore lol !

_Last Of The Lilac Wine _


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